Phantoms from Police & Fire Stations

Location: Paignton (Devon) - Police stationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Mid 2000sFurther Comments: A phantom policeman was said to have been seen along the first floor of this station.

Napoleonic POW

Location: Plymouth (Devon) - Freedom Fields Hospital (no longer operational)Type: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 1976Further Comments: A third year student nurse spotted a short man in blue uniform running down a staircase. Phoning security, they reassured the student that the figure was the resident ghost, a Napoleonic prisoner of war.

Location: Potton (Bedfordshire) - Potton Fire StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Post 1974Further Comments: Built in 1974 on the site of an old tannery, it is unsure whether the strange noises and other odd events are connected to events from the previous building or the current one.

Footsteps

Location: SE1 (Greater London) - British Transport Police StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 2013Further Comments: More than one officer working alone has heard the distinct sound of footsteps walking along and stopping a short distance away. One witness reported the sound of footsteps was followed by a loud bang and the floor shaking. A shadowy figure was spotted running through the area by one detective, while a builder on the site walked past a lady who wasn't actually there...

Fireman

Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Old Fire StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the male entity said to haunt this building is named as a former fireman.

Policeman

Location: Sixpenny Handley (Dorset) - Spots Green, between village and UpwoodType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Early 1910sFurther Comments: A phantom policeman was observed walking along the road before vanishing.

Pungent Cigars

Location: Sunderland (Durham) - Royal Infirmary Hospital (Ward F62, no longer standing)Type: Crisis ManifestationDate / Time: 1980sFurther Comments: This was a palliative care ward. A doctor who worked there would smoke very pungent cigars. After he died the smell of cigars would fill the air a few minutes before a serious medical event occurred. So many staff experienced the smoke that it became unofficial procedure to check every patient and call in resuscitation staff if anyone detected the smell.

Woman with Veil

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - New Scotland YardType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Woman unknown, other events 2010Further Comments: Some say that the entity which haunted the old New Scotland Yard moved along with the exhibits of the Black Museum (aka Crime Museum), and can now be found within the walls of this famous police station. More recently, it has been reported that perfume can be detected in a fire escape near the museum, while a new recruit encountered the ghost of a former staff member.

Hooded Female

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Old New Scotland Yard, Parliament StreetType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Twentieth centuryFurther Comments: Haunting the Black Museum, this ghost is thought to be that of a woman whose body was found on site as the building was erected. The remains had no head, and the void beneath the spectre's hood reflects this. In the early part of the century, the Reformatory and Industrial Schools unit was haunted by something which opened windows and slammed doors.

Woman

Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Fire StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 1960s, 1970sFurther Comments: Footsteps were heard in the upper parts of the building when no one should have been there, and strange footprints appeared on freshly polished floors, stopping abruptly half way across. One firefighter awoke in the dorm to see a grey shadowy figure standing over him, while another followed a figure into the toilets, only to find them empty. One fire officer suggested it was the ghost of a woman who drowned in the canal, over which the fire station was built.

Officer

Location: Thorpe-le-Soken (Essex) - Police StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: UnknownFurther Comments: Dressed in an old fashioned uniform, this ex-officer is said to haunt his former station. It is also said that whispering voices can be heard in the cells when they are empty.

Presence

Location: Totnes (Devon) - Police stationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 2002 - 2007 (approx)Further Comments: After the old cells at this police station were closed, they were used instead as store rooms. In these store rooms a number of police officers reported feeling they were not alone, and the door to the rear car park could be heard opening and closing.

Sergeant

Location: W1 (Greater London) - Former Vine Street Police StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 1969Further Comments: This officer of the law, who killed himself in a cell in the nineteenth century, still keeps an eye on workers at the site.

Mrs Abercrombie Walking

Location: W4 (Greater London) - Chiswick Police Station, Chiswick High RoadType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: Twentieth centuryFurther Comments: The site of a grisly murder in 1792, when Mrs Abercrombie's son-in-law hit her several times with a large axe. The woman is now said to haunt the building; when not heard pacing around, she materialises in the upper regions.

Whistling

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - Oxhey Police StationType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 2008Further Comments: Reputedly built on the site of a gallows, the empty corridors are said to be home to disembodied whistling after dark.

Two Thirds of a Man

Location: West Malling (Kent) - Police House, West StreetType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: June or July 2006Further Comments: A police officer spotted the bottom two thirds of a figure on the staircase of this building. The figure wore soft leather boots, a long black cape and a silver doublet with a sword hanging from it. The figure disappeared from view up the stairs. The officer gave chase, but no one could be found - the only way out was back past the officer.

Nurse

Location: Whitacre Heath (Warwickshire) - Halloughton Grange LaneType: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: 1930s and January 2010, around 20:45hFurther Comments: During the 1930s a cyclist heading towards Kingsbury along this road swerved to avoid a nurse as she stepped out in front of him - he failed, and passed straight through her. The encounter left him shaken, and when he finally spoke of the incident, he was told that a nurse had been killed in an accident on the spot several years previous. In 2010 a transparent figure in a cape was seen standing by the roadside where the road folks - one again the witness was left shaken.

Tall Figure

Location: Wigan (Lancashire) - Fire Station (old building)Type: Haunting ManifestationDate / Time: April 2015Further Comments: A tall grey figure was reportedly seen by several people at different times, moving down the corridor by the watch office. Disembodied footsteps were also heard in the kit room.

Flying Plates

Location: Wigan (Lancashire) - Private flat, Woodford Street, Pemberton (former police station)Type: PoltergeistDate / Time: Late 2010 / early 2011Further Comments: Wigan Today reported that poltergeist activity in this flat ceased after Dead Connections paranormal team exorcised the site. Occupier Holly Taylor had experienced plates flying around, disembodied footsteps and other strange activities. The site also had a reputation of being haunted when it was a police station, with a former officer claiming that bangs and footsteps were heard by staff.

Tall Officer

Location: Wrexham (Clwyd) - Wrexham police stationType: Unknown Ghost TypeDate / Time: Summer 2003Further Comments: While refuelling a van in the yard, Special Constable Mark Davies spotted the reflection of a tall policeman standing behind him in one of the windows. Davies turned to speak to the officer, but there was no one there. It was speculated that the ghostly figure was a motorcyclist who had died a few months earlier.